Russell defends his pole: “There was only one yellow flag.” And he explains the ‘stay calm’ over the radio

Russell on pole and the others are bitter. In the end, at least from the point of view of the regulations, he was right. George Russell can celebrate the pole position in qualifying for the Austrian GP and it doesn’t matter that controversy has erupted all around for his time, achieved at the last possible attempt, recorded while the yellow flag was waving for Max Verstappen’s exit from the track at the last corner. The Englishman slowed down sufficiently according to the stewards and therefore his best time cannot be disputed. “There was only one yellow flag – Russell explained to Sky Sport F1 at the end of qualifying – and I had to lift my foot a lot, the accelerator, and then after the bend I saw that there was a green light. Clearly I would have wanted to complete the lap without lifting my foot, because I would have been three or four tenths ahead, but on that bend I raised my foot.” The case of ‘stay calm’ “Did the experience pay off? I don’t know, I don’t think it paid off anything because I didn’t work more, in fact, I probably worked less – added Russell, speaking about the difficulties faced yesterday in free practice – because I was a bit confused and I followed my instinct. I spoke about it with Charles [Leclerc] before: last year and the years past, every lap the two of us did we always thought we could push. This year, however, one time we go faster and the other time we are 3 tenths or 4 tenths slower than our team mates and we don’t understand why these cars, these tyres, these power units are so demanding to interpret correctly”. Finally Russell explained the small case of “stay calm” said in Italian over the radio, which some read as a sort of dig at teammate Antonelli: “Clearly Q2 was very stressful, in the garage they were stressed and I too was a bit stressed and said ‘stay calm’ about that. I said to myself ‘don’t worry, I’ll make it’, and then the ride was amazing. Was the Italian word a message for anyone in particular? Oh my God, no, no, I was just joking, I was joking. I want to make this clear because there was nothing, let’s make this clear because there was absolutely nothing intentional, absolutely. I spent a lot of time in Italy when I was karting and also on holiday. Tomorrow in the race I think the top seven riders all have a chance, honestly. I think it will be a very close battle between us, Ferrari, McLaren and Max, because he was also very fast. I think Ferrari has the fastest car in the corners, while we are the fastest on the straight. Maybe this will also help us manage the tire grade,” he concluded.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-28 02:47:00